Phoenix Marching Band
by Dreams of Harmony
Summary: She has family issues and can only stay calm because of Marching Band. Now, she is pushed into a school without a marching band. When her issues take an all time high, Ally needs to rely on her two friends to help with the rebirth of the well known band.
1. The Steryotype is Broken

Hello, ADG here. This is my second story currently posted on Fanfiction. So between work and walking in step pep band practice I might not be able to update quickly. Anyway, I really have zero personal knowledge on marching band. My knowledge comes from the many stories I read on the internet. So, please correct me if I make mistakes in the upcoming chapters. Please enjoy.

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**Chapter One: the Steryotype is Broken, a girl Crosses the Drum Boundaries**

She was forced to move, why? Because her father was thrown into Prison because of her cousin's large lying mouth. Her best friend even became her enemy. Now, after the fifth time of moving, a small town Band-geek is thrown into city life, her life was now officially over.

Never once did Aéropostale, Abercrombie and Fitch or American Eagle cross her mind. Brand names were never important, or at least, clothing brand names weren't. Names like Pearl, Remo, Ludwig and Vic Firth were always on her mind; that was the mind of a band geeky percussionist. One such percussionist was Ally Miller, an incoming junior at Woodlake Central High school.

The day of registration for the upcoming school year had finally come, which would explain why the school was flooded with students and parents yet a very minimal number of staff members. Only the fall sport coaching teachers and the musical directors were there. Ally Miller was one of the many students at the registration, she had decided to have most of her schedule be college courses so she could get the useless stuff out of the way and not pay a few thousand dollars on the classes that were unneeded. However, with this decision, the band geek had not signed up for Band, also because with this being her Junior Year, she would hate to be automatically placed in a band with the underclassmen.

As the girl got her schedule, she glanced at it and began to explore, somehow, she got caught up in a group of returning band kids and started to follow them to the band room, just out of band geeky personality. As she walked into the room, a slight gasp escaped her lips, trophies bordered the room on shelves along with large silky banners from competitions the bands in the previous year had gone to, but the sight that she was really gasping about was the percussion section, organized for concert playing, yet the "marching" equipment lined its borders.

As she got closer to the Percussion area, she was also getting closer to the director's office and the name on the door made her eyes widen, engraved in black plastic meant to look like obsidian was the name painted in white 'Donald Wilson, Director of Concert Band and Drum line Instructor'. With slight hesitation, the girl walked up to the door and knocked on it, but before she noticed that no one was inside, a massive shadow showed on the door, "Hey, it's that hick town girl that lives on your street Andy." A boy said calmly.

"I guess it is. Hick girl, get out of our area. No girls ever step foot into this section, the Principal even hesitates!" The boy that she figured was Andy said.

"And to think that she was knocking on Mr. D's door!" a younger voice taunted, "Mr. D is the manliest man, he would never waste time on some prissy girl."

As the insults continued the girl turned to face the boys, "So I guess it is true, city boys have no manners. Where I'm from, boys treat girls with respect, maybe not the helping out of cars olden days' respect, but none of them insulted a girl like this." She said calmly as she slipped her hands into her faded and grass stained jeans.

"Andy, Dominic, Demitri!" a stern voice called out, "Leave the girl alone. She may be from a small town, but Donny was her teacher, she could beat any of you in a challenge. Anyways, it is nice to see you Ally. I apologize for their rudeness."

The girl smiled and nodded, "They learn from their captain, don't they Sean. That was how you first greeted me." She said as she shook hands with the senior who had walked up to her, "The Youth Ensemble was boring this last year. I just stopped by out of curiosity; can you tell Don to call me? I need to tell him a few bad things, all of which he might freak out about."

The senior nodded, "You're not doing band…are you?"

She nodded hesitantly, "My schedule is almost all college courses. I love band and you know that…but I just can't do it here…plus, I'd probably be with the little Softies and Freshies. I should get going…" she said quietly, feeling slightly awkward, she turned and started to leave, not knowing that she was roll-stepping instead of walking normally.

"Ally! Play for a little bit, please! Just to show these incompetent baboons that you are not a girl to be messed with. There is that quint duet and we have two sets of quints." Sean called out almost pleadingly, something his fellow drummers had never seen before. However, he was not expecting the junior to tackle him, "Really? You're tackling me now, after the duet we're having an all out wrestling match before our walking in step band starts."

The girl that had tackled him nodded and got up, helping Sean up as well, "Alright then, Quint duet it is." She said as both of them walked over to the two sets of tenor drums, she was going for the really dusty set, but Sean took it out of politeness and let her use the better set. Within a few minutes the senior boy and junior girl were in the middle of the band room having an all out tenor war that had been written. And for the first time ever, the Woodlake Central High Drum line members saw their captain in his utmost glory and happiness as he played the duet with this still unknown girl. Another thing that they did not expect to happen happened.

The drum line instructor walked in and saw the captain of his little family encourage his number one rule to be broken, yet instead of yelling, he picked up a snare and put the harness on his shoulders and walked over to the Cymbal section leader and whispered something to him, then did the same to the bass drum section. Soon, the whole drum line was surrounding these two tenor players, improvising like heck to keep up with the two energetic percussionists. This was the life of Ally Miller, and now, she did not know if she wanted to throw it away.

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This is my first Marching band story posted. Yes, I know there is a lack of marching in the first chapter, it is just set up. Also, my High School is severely lacking in the "Marching Band" department. We are more centered on classical stuff and just horsing around, so please, if you wish, leave tips on marching band stuff. The knowledge I have is as good as what is posted on here.


	2. Ally's Family Life is Revealed

Yay! I managed to do a second chapter in one day! Huzzah!

Anyway, **singintoyourself, ** I do not know if you were asking if Sean and Ally knew each other or if Don and Ally knew each other. But I made the connection between Don and her stronger in this chapter (In case it was unclear in the first), Sean's turn will be coming up soon, but yes he knows her as well.

I hope you all enjoy this next chapter. Some more of Ally's personal life comes up.

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After the duet had finished, Mr. D's face suddenly turned into one of anger, which looked out of place in the mob of laughing boys and girl. "Allyson Marie Theresa Miller! There in the hell have you been and why in the hell did you not sign up for band?" the questions were not quiet; the instructor had shouted the two questions and the boys were pretty sure that the faculty members would be down in a few minutes to check on the situation. They also knew that Mr. D was not to be messed with when he was in this mood so the underclassmen and even a few of the upperclassmen took a few steps back.

However, the shouting did not even faze the girl as she turned to face him while groaning, "Don! Don't yell. I'm sorry that I have not been in touch…there have been a lot of issues in the family, and as for…" she paused as she thought about what the man had said, "How did you know? I just scheduled yesterday and today. Donald Edward Wilson you were listening in on us!" she shouted accusingly as she pointed a finger at the instructor before she slipped the harness off of her shoulders and set the five drum tenor instrument on the floor.

Her eyes narrowed as those that stepped away from Don took a few more steps and even Don took a step back, "You better run." She growled as she ran after him, tackling him to the ground before he even got halfway to his office. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded up schedule, "This is why I cannot do Band D. With all of these AP college courses, I'll be surrounded in homework. Plus, it looks like there are quite a number of competitions per year here, I would fall behind too quickly." She said calmly as she moved off of the man and stood up while dusting her knees off.

The instructor frowned as he got up as well, "Sean, you got your schedule yesterday and I know you have it on you. Compare your schedule to Ms. Miller's and see if any of your courses are the same. I only care about the course and teacher, forget about the time." He ordered as he turned to the rest of the boys, "Stop staring, and go get your music and sticks. After this, you all will start practice."

The Drum Line captain nodded and obediently went to his pile of things and grabbed his schedule from his stick case and went back to Ally. After a minute of comparing the two he sighed, "The only differences are that I have band, she does not, she has tutorial and I do not and she is taking AP US History and I took that last year so I could still help her if she were to fall behind. Besides those differences, it looks like Little Miss Hicktown is in Senior AP Classes." He said calmly before he winced slightly when he felt a hand collide with the back of his head, "It also looks like she could be placed in our band if I can sweet talk her counselor into changing her schedule."

"It is not a matter of that Sean! Between my family life and my job, I need all of the time I can get for homework. I cannot commit to band because I know that will always be number one priority on my list. You've known me for a few years, you should know that by now." The girl said quietly.

"Sean, take the idiots out into the field, warm them up and start running cadences. I'll be out sometime before your practice is over." Don said calmly as he turned to Ally and pointed at the office door, "You, office now. No arguing." He said quietly.

Both percussionists obeyed silently, well one of them did. Sean had to order a few of the little freshmen to stop staring at Don and Ally and for them to get outside. "Drummers, suit of and meet on the Field. We start in five minutes, whoever is not ready in five will do laps." He ordered seriously as he adjusted the quints before he headed out with a few of the other seniors who were ready to go.

Once the room had cleared, Don went into his office and saw the Junior girl sitting in his desk chair. Before he could say anything, she took a deep breath.

"It is getting worse Don. Between my mom at school and the idiot controlling my life, I do not know who I am anymore." She murmured as she closed her eyes and leaned back. "I feel like I am in a dark nightmare, almost as if I am a puppet being controlled by a puppeteer."

The instructor sat on the edge of his desk, now hiding the only visible piece of wood on the desktop. "Have you talked to Carrie about it? Al, I hate seeing you like this." He said quietly, "Do you have any family out here?" he added on to his other sentence with a pained look on his face.

"D. You know that I only know you and Sean out here. I cannot runaway and I cannot move out." She almost whispered, "Band was all I had that kept me sane."

"Then why are you throwing it away?" Don asked loudly, "Is it because your stepfather said to? After practice I am taking you to your house and I will talk to your parents, I will not let that man ruin your life. Greg would have hated that." He said seriously, also bringing in Ally's deceased brother who had almost been like Don's twin.

Now, if it was not already made obvious, Don Wilson and Ally Miller are extremely close, closer than a normal instructor possible student relationship should be. But, it was not everyday that your instructor was a close student to your father's and your instructor was a close best friend to your older brother. In Don's eyes, Ally was a little sister and with her father not around, her brother dead and her step father an inactive idiot, he was all that was left that could help make her life right.

Without another word, Don headed to the door of his office when he stopped and looked at the girl, "Grab the set of quints Al, Sean has an extra set of mallets. You already know most of the cadences." He ordered. He headed out to the field with the junior tagging behind him, knowing that getting the girl to play was the only way that she could think clearly.

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Well, was it good, okay or horrible? Please comment! Also, if you have a character you want to have in here, let me know.


	3. The Instructor knows more than the Fam

Yay! I got two positive reviews for Chapter Two! However, I did not know that I was lacking in contractions. I'll try to add more. I guess it is a habit, I rarely use them myself. Anyway, onto Chapter Three in which more family Drama will arise, well it is the same drama from earlier, it is just happening. Anyway, read, relax and enjoy!

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It was not until 8:30-9 that practice ended, and as promised Don gave Ally a ride home with a certain Senior tagging along, mainly in support of Ally. He knew her family had issues, what family didn't? However, he was clueless about the severity of those said issues or at least he was clueless until they got to her house. It was a standard Colonial and it looked average on the outside, nothing special to brag about. But when the three percussionists walked into the house, random little kid toy parts littered the floor along with trash and the sound of a TV blaring could be heard from the back.

"Mom! Dave! I'm home! I also have company!" the girl called out as she showed the two males to the living room.

Soon, a lady in her mid-forties came into the room, "Don! It's nice to see you, what brought you here?"

The instructor smiled as he hugged the lady, "I wanted to talk to you and your husband about Al's." he said seriously, "Oh, our Drumline captain came along as well, he was in the youth orchestra ensemble with Ally." He added as he motioned to the senior who was standing awkwardly next to Ally. It was the look of, 'I know I came here, but I do not fit in here, will they mistake me as her boyfriend?'

"It is nice to meet you Mrs. Miller. Your daughter has an amazing talent." He said as he shook hands with the mother.

"Sean lets go to my room. Don can talk to them alone." Ally offered as she headed towards the stairs. When she noticed that Sean followed, she went up them and went to the end of the hallway and walked into the room.

The bedroom was a clash of a standard studying student, a tech. drummer and a marching band member. Over her bed was a poster of her wearing a marching band uniform with a set of quints on. She walked over to her desk and grabbed a year book that was next to her ancient computer then went over to her room height bookshelf and put it on one of the few shelves that actually held books, the others were filled with trophies and medals from band. "Try the drumset out. Just make sure to use the headphones. That is the only reason why I got an electronic drumset." She said quietly.

After telling Sean that, Ally went over to the bed and sat down; she glanced at the poster before she turned to the door. The boy had been playing for a few minutes now so the sound of shouting never reached his ears.

"Don't tell me how to raise my daughter!"

"It looks like I need to, you sit around all day while your wife is balancing school and work, your daughter is stressing out because of moving yet again to a new school and now you are taking away the only thing that keeps her sane! You do not know her at all!"

"Both of you Enough!"

As the fighting stopped Ally stared out of her window. Without a word, she got up and went over to her keyboard and started to play an original composition. However, this song was different from her others. Instead of being upbeat and happy, it was slow and sad.

It did not take Sean long to notice the girl playing, so he stopped and took off the headphones. "Al, come on, you need to get out of here." He said quietly.

Silently, she looked up hesitantly before she nodded, "Alright." She said quietly as she got up. When both of them got down stairs, Ally's mother was talking to Don who was red-faced and still angry, "Mom. Sean and I are leaving. I have my keys, do not worry about me."

Seeing the perfect opportunity to leave, Don got up, "I'll take you two back to school, that is where Sean's car is after all. Liz, please consider my offer, you know that it is the best way, and he is willing to help her when she needs it."

The lady nodded, "Just do it Don. It is sad that you know her better than us. I'll pay for it too so it is not a burden on you." She said quietly as she got up and left the room.

"Don, outside now." Sean muttered as he pointed towards the door. His eyes narrowed as he watched the instructor obey with a smile, "What did you do?"

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So this is Chapter three, kind of short I apologize. I guess Chapter four will start off with Don's plans with Ally's mother. Please review, critique etc.


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